This is like a soap opera or reality show or something. Girl is kidnapped by teacher and now the Tennessee laws say what?
Don’t federal statutes come into play if he took her across state lines? Or is kidnapping strictly a state law offense?
If he crossed state lines it will be a federal kidnapping charge.
It’s generally foolish to rewrite statutes over one incident
I live 12 miles from there
Consensus is she is with him cause she wanted to and is hiding out with him for that reason ran off
I think her home life wasn’t great...though I could be wrong
So I don’t think that qualifies as kidnapping
I suspect the law was over parents running off with children in custody disputes when the kid seeked to flee
However I think he’s in serious trouble for the age issue
Age of consent in Tennessee is 18 unless I think it’s within two years age difference
Given his age and position it’s aggravated and authority figure charge
Carries real prison time
8-30
But she might not be willing to testify and she could be legal by the time it goes to court
What if he marries her in Mexico or something?
Hopefully the teacher reads this and believes it.
I heartily disapprove of this whole apparent occurrence. Guy is a statutory rapist probably, endangered the morals of a child, but -
I don’t put him on the same plane as a guy who drags a girl off the sidewalk into his van.
There are levels of evil.
I think the van grabber guy is worse. I can accept laws that reflect that.
In a jury I’d vote to convict and put him away for as long as possible. I believe this is a serious crime and needs to be punished hard. But, not the same level as one who steals you from your bed, say, in the middle of the night. There’s a lot more terror involved, there.
Win or lose, there is something else the state could do, which is done in many other states. Craft a law making it a serious crime for “adults in a position of authority, trust or confidence” over minors to engage in sex with them, indifferent to whether they marry them first, which, oddly enough, is sometimes at issue. Sex includes improper communications or associations of any kind.
This eliminates a lot of the subjectivity about what the minor feels or thinks about the affair. It also puts pressure on institutions to prohibit situations in which adults can be alone with minors without at least the potential for observation. That is, counseling in an office must be done with an open door, etc.
The closing of the window of time for this is two fold, when the minor is 18 years old, *and* no longer under any sway by the adult, which is determined by institutional policy, not statute, which can overcome the, “I’ve graduated, now let’s have sex” situation.
He didn’t have legal custody of the minor in question. What the heck is there to argue?!